Endland - Chapter 0: Introduction
by Valin Brightfire
Summary: FULL DISCLAIMER: This is an original story loosely inspired by certain elements of asoiaf without actually taking place in it's world and containing it's characters, none the less it is sincerely consistent with it's style and narrative structure. Chapter 0:An introduction to the fantasy world of Endland that cuts down on exposition, favoring a live presentation of it's discovery.


The palace of House brightfire laid at the center of their capital, and as most palaces do in such great cities it contained large splendid flower-gardens, and in the center of one such great garden a company of three sat. A man dressed in once fine clothes that were worn and torn with time, not quite old yet but definitely not young, nearly in his forties with a thick wild beard in the mud-brown color of his short hair , although that hair barely shown through his hat. He had a long scar on his left cheek and a longer smile of his face. That man that had once been a legend in his prime, was talking and gesturing to the two children that sat quietly and watched enchanted, a boy and a girl neither older than six, wearing clothing that only the richest families could afford to children, a long black dress woven with silk and golden string to match the girl's golden hair and eyes and a linen light blue tunic and black trousers for the boy, simpler clothes but no less elegant, although they did not fit his bright blue eyes and pitch black hair as much. The older man was Sir Tanel Gosby, a former knight that claimed to have only kept the code of chivalry and title from all the parts of knighthood -the man was not even bearing arms, as the boy had noticed- and a famed explorer who had supposedly traveled on every corner of the world, although he would tell anyone he hadn't even been to every one of the nine regions yet, in the past he was welcome in most palaces and courts and all such places were noblemen gathered, but as of late his age had started catching up with him, the tribute from the far lands he used to deliver to lords and ladies became lesser and his stories started to repeat, and in such he was now residing in the palace of house brightfire where he was still accepted.

The children had come to him asking for stories. The explorer was tired but the eagerness of his audience roused his inner pride , a pride that came naturally with sharing his discoveries, the eyes of both the princess and the little lord were opened wide and glimmered with wonder. Initially he had told the children off, tactfully for he knew from their appearance and manners that they were high born, but told them off he had none the less, yet there was something earnest in their curiosity that reminded him of his own childhood, and so he finally complied to their demand and started telling the story of the first people, his voice started of dry, but his innermost delight, borne of sincere passion, made him color it as a bard would when singing a ballad, without even realizing he did so''They were exiled here... about a few hundred, women and men... and I suppose most of them must have been quite young, at least I can speculate so based on my research. They were our ancestors, the first men to dwell on Endland, and they were all exiles.

Curiously, despite my many efforts, I never managed to find out what led to their exile. In all of the ancient, dusted records that I uncovered ,scribbled in yellowed parchment kept in some forgotten corner of a library or written in books that were hidden away in crates amongst other, less important documents, in all those stories and transcripts left by those first denizens of endland there wasn't any mention as to why they were all banished here. Not one of the relics I unearthed could give me insight as to who these people were before their exile and what sort of terrible event could lead them all to being abandoned here, never did I discover anything about their life before this expulsion, or their land of origination, truly strange... but I did find other interesting things.

While they left no mention of their previous lives, not in any of the records I brought to light at least, they were quite fervent in recording their first experience in the new world, and many of them continued keeping journals until they met their end, be it on a deathbed or at the end of a knife's cruel sharpened blade. Here is one of them:

-Today, after thirst had almost claimed us completely, we finally broke through the stones that marked the end the cave, from where we could hear the sweet singing of flowing water as we dug away tirelessly through the thick stone layer hoping to find this trickling water source before we succumbed to our thirst. Alas, it was no small underground current of water that we revealed when we stroke the last blow and part of the stone ceiling finally collapsed, but a huge body of water that rushed into the cave quenching our torches and knocking us down as it went, and it would have drowned us too if it wasn't flushed so quickly through the cave system, surging downwards through the rocks with a deafening roar. The flow of water stabilized almost immediately and a prodigious descending stream laid before us, rumbling.

We were soaked, and we were ecstatic. We got to our feet and rushed to the newly made waterfall that was our salvation and drunk our fill, and then some more, and some more still, we filled our bellies with the river's water finally satiating the thirst that comes after two days of near total dehydration. A river it was. No stream that run through cracks in the rock, no mere trickle of water, but a great river that now run through the cave forming a vibrant waterfall and from the hole we just formed came a light. Not the sickly yellow-tinted torchlight that brings the unbearable, choking of thick smoke to mind, not the faint candle-light that flickers and seems to never be enough to light the way, no, the light that reached our eyes was that of the sun, it was daylight.

Filled with relief and no small amount of curiosity, we agreed to climb up, the water made the mossy stone even more treacherous and slippery, slowing down our ascension but we helped each other up and finally made it to the surface. As we directed our gaze skywards and then to our surroundings we were awed by the vastness of the grassy plains that expanded outwards in all directions with the great river dividing the level plane in two parts extending one to the East and the other to the West. The river flew until the sky met the earth in the distant horizon and we could not see where it ended, or begun. We breathed fresh air and rejoiced under the light of the sun. After some looking around, at the northernmost edge we could just barely make out the first trees of what seemed to be a great forest, as our eyes adjusted to the light, after a short conversation we ventured forth in good spirits, hoping to find food there, for our supplies were running low.

Suddenly we realized something very strange, having not seen the sky for almost a week, it was quite comforting to have it above us, but there was something bizarre and uncanny about it's shape and this particular shade of light blue, an unnatural appearance we all started to notice. Then it came to us, the realization that a colossal dome extended above us, that we were in yet another cave, but in one with unparalleled size and some transparent crystal on it's arched roof that allowed sunlight to pass. In any case, considering our previous conditions, no one was especially dissatisfied with our current state, whether that great crystal covering was cause for concern or something potentially beneficial, or if perhaps it was neither or even both was not universally agreed upon, still, everyone could agree on one thing, this was indeed a wondrous world.-

"That passage is from Geralt's own journal, I uncovered it in my first expedition to the silver mines of house Ithil, it is truly a marvelous read, how wonderful it must have been to be one of the first to walk on Endland, they must have dug their way to the valley of the Valelands, they were the first to cross the forest that once covered all of the area that's now held by house Ogir. Now you must understand that while the Great Dome is something utterly pedestrian to us, for these people, it must have been a true wonder to behold... I do inquire as to where they lived before, presumably somewhere outside the dome...''

As the explorer paused for a moment, immersed in deep thought as he was, the boy found a chance to speak up: "My grandma Amilia said there are no lands beyond Endland! Was she lying?" The boy was Alexander Brightfire, sir Tanel realized, lady Amilia's youngest and only surviving grandchild. His question alarmed the explorer, the dilemma it presented took him by surprise and, Amilia Pillar had always been the sanctimonious sort, she was devout to the faith of the Black Sun and she was committed to the holy task of passing her religious zeal on to her grandson as she had done with her son. Much to her dismay, Alexander proved to be more like his mother than his father and Amilia never quite managed to distill in him that same piety, as she had confessed to sir Tanel the previous day. She was sixty eight years of age, and she was the reason he was still welcomed in the Brightfire Palace, even with his name now mostly forgotten and his purses empty of exotic goods.

Amilia had never forgotten sir Tanel, for when her eldest daughter was set upon by bandits, as she was carelessly walking in the woods alone, he, who was only a boy of fifteen then and happened to be passing by, charged in without thinking and drove them away and although he never credited his deed to anything other than good fortune and the bandit's own cowardice, he did save the little lady. For his courage he was rewarded with his scar and his knighthood, he had little use for either but he would later come to know that the favor of a lady as powerful as Amilia, was no small thing to have. Ever since he had lived the perilous life of an adventurer but still he visited Amilia often and even when her daughter died in childbirth, her gratitude never seemed to wane, her trust never abated. Even for her overly devout nature, that often became overbearing and troublesome, he could not blame her, she had lost two sons in the campaigns, back when the great war was fought between the supporters of the two faiths. She needed to believe with all her heart, if for no other reason than to justify that cruel sacrifice that she could never accept otherwise, that was the only way she could make peace with the weeping mother inside her, the only way she could shut her eyes each night and sleep.

She would wish of him to tell the children that there were no other lands, no unknown regions besides the great kingdom of the blackened Sun as her doctrine ordained, she would wish of him to advice them to follow the teachings of the new prophet, to trust the truth of the divine words. But he was no man of faith, he was fostered with house Spark and he was at heart a man of discovery and of the scientific method, a man devouted to the truth, but such truth as that which he could justify with his reasoning. He firmly believed that there were places beyond the Great Dome, he had no reason not to, he had gathered much evidence to support his idea and he payed little heed to the teachings of prophets and clerics, people he often found to be less than trustworthy. Could he tell that to the children? It would be an offence to the faith of the Black Sun, a direct offence to lady Amilia to doubt her words in this manner, she would be furious, but what choice did he have? Could he really lie to those little children, could he lie to the future rulers that looked to him for the truth, could he betray their faith.

The answer was no, it would always be no. As the crusaders in the past year's had sworn to follow the sigil of the Black Sun to their graves, so had he pledged his service to the truth, he would say what he though was right, he would speak with caution of course, but he would state his opinion none the less "Your grandmother is no liar, and you should never call her such, she is a most gracious and kind old lady and deserves respect" the boy frowned but did not interrupt him "But that doesn't mean she is right, not this time at least, different people have different opinions and I believe there are many places in this world we have yet to discover, I have ever reason to believe so!" the little lord sat in silence, for a moment sir Tanel feared he had misunderstood but then the boy spoke again " I agree... my grandma says a lot of wrong things, last month he told me that the men from the South have teeth in their banners because they drink blood, but when I followed her to the market and talked with two traders from house Morg, they all told me the teeth were a symbol of strength" house Morg was the only major house whose lands he had never known, but still he knew the truth behind the boy's words "They were telling the truth..." the explorer admitted.

"Tell us more stories about the first people." The little girl spoke with a voice soft as the cool touch of the morning breeze, sir Tanel inspected her closely for just a second and he immediately knew who she was, she had the sigil of house Wyvern emblazoned on her dress, a crowned Wyvern*, representing the royal branch of house Wyvern, she was Sophie Wyvern, the princess of the realm, currently fostered far away from Blackwing keep, staying with her mother, the queen at Brightfire lands, although the explorer did not know the reason for that. It was rare for a royal child to be raised away from the lands of the throne and rarer still if that child was the heir apparent, but for a queen to live away from her king, that was unheard of, there were plenty of rumors and wild speculations as to why she did so but sir Tanel was not one to pay heed to rumors."As you wish my princess"...

*(Author's Note 1# _Wyvern: A great winged serpentine beast, somewhat similar in appearance to a dragon or a Basilisk but rather smaller and all black. House Wyvern claims it's name from those creatures._ )

...WIP (Note to my readers: Thank you for reading and hopefully enjoining my story, I would be glad to hear your opinion in the form of a review but please do not review any non-finished chapters,if you wish to give feedback regarding these or ask any questions about the story and the world in general, feel free to send me a personal message and I will make sure to answer withing 48 hours, _chapters that are finished will not have the WIP at the end of the page_.

Also, if you are reading the story in it's unfinished mode, remember that, in unfinished chapters, changes and additions are not only made in the end but also at the start and the whole body of each chapter.)


End file.
